The Diaries of Mr Lucas, page 22
7. A Brush with the Krays
1. Popham, P. (10 May 1994). 24 hours in Piccadilly: Peter Popham spends an all-human-life day at the circus (Eros is not what he was). Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/24-hours-in-piccadilly-peter-popham-spends-an-allhumanlife-day-at-the-circus-eros-is-not-what-hewas-1434777.html.
2. Lucas, N. (12 Jul. 1964). Peer and a gangster: Yard inquiry. Sunday Mirror.
3. Sunday Mirror (28 Apr. 1963). How to spot a possible homo.
4. BBC News (23 Oct. 2015). Ronnie Kray and Tory peer Lord Boothby ‘attended homosexual parties’. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34612729.
5. Staveley-Wadham, R. (27 Sep. 2021). ‘Persons of the worst possible character’ – The story of the Kray twins as told by our newspapers [blog]. The British Newspaper Archive. Retrieved from https://blog.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/2021/09/27/the-story-of-the-kray-twins/#:~:text=We%20now%20wish%20to%20apologise,our%20reports%20caused%20to%20him.
6. Baker, R. (26 Oct. 2018). Gangsters, nude models and pill-popping teens – the hidden history of Gerrard Street. Daily Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/london-chinatown-history/.
8. Out on the Scene
1. Campkin, B., Marshall, L., Raze Collective and Queer Spaces Network (Jul. 2017). LGBTQ+ nightlife spaces in London. UCL Urban Laboratory. Retrieved from https://www.ucl.ac.uk/urban-lab/research/research-projects/lgbtq-nightlife-spaces-london.
2. Vaines, C. (17 May 2015). Soho stories: Celebrating six decades of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2015/may/17/londonsoho-stories-sex-drugs-rock-and-roll.
3. Waddell, B. (1993). The Black Museum: New Scotland Yard. Little, Brown.
4. Huggett, R. (1989). Binkie Beaumont: Eminence Grise of the West End Theatre, 1933–1973. Hodder & Stoughton.
5. McKinley, B. (2 Jun. 2017). London 40 years on: In search of my musical youth. Irish Times. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/london-40-years-on-in-search-of-my-musical-youth-1.3105615.
6. Ferry, K. (2011). The 1950s Kitchen. Shire Library.
7. East Kent Times and Mail (13 Mar. 1970). Peter Dolphin of Dolphin Square gets a ducking – in the dolphinarium.
9. The Slow Train to Ireland
1. Ruhs, M. and Quinn, E. (1 Sep. 2009). Ireland: From rapid immigration to recession. Migration Policy Institute. Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/ireland-rapid-immigration-recession#:~:text=With%20the%20exception%20of%20the,a%20country%20of%20net%20immigration.
2. O’Connell, P. J. (Feb. 1997). The Irish labour market: Working paper no. 81. Economic and Social Research Institute. Retrieved from https://www.esri.ie/system/files?file=media/file-uploads/2015-07/WP081.pdf; Central Statistics Office (27 Jun. 2006). Measuring Ireland’s progress, 2005. Retrieved from https://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/pressreleases/2006pressreleases/measuringirelandsprogress2005/.
3. Gallagher, C. (30 Nov. 2016). Gay community recalls dark days before decriminalisation. Irish Times. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/gay-communityrecalls-dark-days-before-decriminalisation-1.2886652.
4. Varadkar, L. (19 Jun. 2018). In the three years before I was born… [tweet]. X. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/LeoVaradkar/status/1009127511295393792.
5. Irish Times (24 Sep. 2016). Barry Dunne: All were welcome in his family’s pub, Bartley Dunne’s. Retrieved from https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/barry-dunne-all-werewelcome-in-his-family-s-pub-bartley-dunne-s-1.2803432.
6. Ibid.
7. Hansard (19 Jun. 1967). Overseas travel allowance. Retrieved from https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1967/jun/19/overseas-travel-allowance.
10. Sex, Money and Death
1. Scotsman (21 Jul. 2004). Man convicted of killing paedophile teacher he befriended in jail. Retrieved from https://www.scotsman.com/news/man-convicted-of-killing-paedophile-teacher-he-befriended-in-jail-2509381; Collins, R. (29 Nov. 2016). Grub’s in good nick. Scottish Sun. Retrieved from https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/236137/wheelie-binkiller-ian-sutherland-who-chopped-up-teacher-into-fivepieces-boasts-about-festive-prison-food-in-magazine/#:~:text=The%20court%20heard%20how%20Sutherland,it%20 in%20a%20back%20garden.
2. Khan, S. (15 Feb. 2004). Horror tale stranger than fiction. Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/feb/15/ukcrime.stephenkhan.
11. The Death of Mr Lucas
1. Yanagihara, H. (2022). To Paradise. Picador: 639.
2. HMICFRS (27 Apr. 2023). An inspection of the Metropolitan Police Service’s response to lessons from the Stephen Port murders. Retrieved from https://hmicfrs.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/publications/inspection-of-the-metropolitan-policeservices-response-to-lessons-from-the-stephen-port-murders/.
Postscript
1. Nin, A. (1969). The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931–1934 (edited by Gunther Stuhlmann). Mariner Books.
2. Isherwood, C. (1939). Goodbye to Berlin. Hogarth Press.
3. Comments made by Mark Gatiss during a reading of the Mr Lucas diaries for a Queer Britain fundraiser on 6 Feb. 2020 at London’s Bishopsgate Institute.
4. The Essential Gore Vidal, edited by Fred Kaplan (Abacus, 2000)
5. Ibid.
6. Wilde, O. De Profundis, The Ballad of Reading Gaol & Other Writings (Wordsworth Classics, 1999)
Acknowledgements
The book has been a labour of love, but one underpinned by the incredible professionalism of the team who brought it to fruition – and there are many people I’d like to thank.
Huge thanks must first go to my wonderful agent Eli Keren (Agent E), who has been with me all the way from the very beginning when the idea was no more than a jumbled collection of scrappy notes.
Also, my editor James Pulford has shown both editing acumen and judicious patience – particularly in the face of working with a journalist used to filing at the very last minute. That goes for all the team at Atlantic Books, who have been fabulous to work with.
I definitely need to thank Julia Kellaway for polishing my ragged sentences into the pellucid prose you’ve hopefully just read.
My former colleagues at the Financial Times, Rohit Jaggi and Stephen Foley, very much deserve a mention for suggesting that I pluck a year at random and start a blog on Facebook that is still unfolding today, many years later (https://www.facebook.com/mrlucas1927).
Huge thanks also to Dr Clifford Hampshire Williams and Tim Burford, both seasoned writers themselves, for their steer and help (and not least their eagle-eyed subbing skills). Craig Hoy, one of Mr Lucas’s friends, provided me with invaluable details of a life led away from the diaries. I owe a huge amount to my former team at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, not least Lucy Middleton, Hayley Watson, Sadiya Ansari and Enrique Anarte – and my much-missed fellow TRF traveller, Rachel Savage – for allowing me to bang on and on (and on) about Mr Lucas. Many thanks also to my former boss, Yasir Khan, and the wider TRF team for supporting me through the mammoth task of bringing Mr Lucas to life. I should mention my former editor, Belinda Goldsmith, for her support as well. Much-needed thanks to Stef Dickers at the Bishopsgate Institute and historian and writer Dominic Janes. David Cook and Mark Gatiss, please take a well-deserved bow for a really rather incredible documentary on Radio 4 (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00138hx) about Mr L; and, additionally, Mark, Joe Galliano and Queer Britain for the 2020 reading of the diaries (https://queerbritain.org.uk/history-2020-mr-lucas-diaries). I must also credit Bryan Karetnyk and Matt Padgett for being the most perfect sounding boards. Almost there, but just to add, sorry Jack, you’re not the most famous Greenhalgh yet…
And last, but certainly not least, to the many readers of the weekly Facebook blog for your charm, humour and – on many, many occasions – assistance. I look forward to spending many more weekends with you.
Index
age of consent, 242–3, 284
Army Act (UK, 1950), 53
Attlee, Clement, 29
Bacon, Francis, 195
Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, 49, 52
bars, 33, 68, 111, 141–2, 160, 166, 176, 192–218, 280–81
Bartley Dunne’s, Dublin, 228–30, 233, 235
Beatles, The, 217
Bell, Laurence, 137, 138, 151–7
Bennitt, M. W., 157
Binkie Beaumont (Huggett), 199
Black Museum, The (Waddell), 195–6
Blackburn, Antony ‘Tony’, 281
Blair, Anthony ‘Tony’, 53
Board of Trade, 2, 35, 71, 80, 85, 113, 141, 148, 164, 183, 187, 204
Boothby, Robert, Baron, 169–72, 174
Bourne, Stephen, 48
Bow Street, London, 73–4, 114
Brinham, George, 137, 141–6, 157, 161
British Army of the Rhine, 49–67
Brixton, London, 104, 113, 164, 164
Buggery Act (England, 1533), 40
Bunch of Grapes, Strand, 201, 281
Burgess, Guy, 137, 138, 147
Burgh Quay, Dublin, 225–7
Byrne, Dermot, 239–40
Cambridge Spy Ring, 137, 147
Campaign for Homosexual Equality, 73
Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, 227
Caravan club, London, 33
Carpenter, Edward, 287, 290
Casement, Roger, 32
Catholicism, 3, 18–19, 31, 75, 82–5, 87, 197, 253–4
Channon, Henry ‘Chips’, 287, 288
Churchill, Winston, 164
Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, 31, 36, 78, 113, 265
Clark, Alan, 5
Clark’s school, Ilford, 271
class, 5, 51, 76, 157
Coe, Godfrey, 200
Coffee-House, London, 102, 142, 158–60, 255
Communism, 19
Connellan, Noel, 231
Connolly, Pat, 34, 35–8, 43, 67
Conservative Group for Homosexual Equality, 73
conversion therapy, 286–7
Conway, Russ, 200
cooking, 205–6
Cornwall, England, 221
cottaging, 20, 31, 33, 46, 51, 52–67, 68, 72, 107, 196, 252, 281
decline of, 215–16, 217
in Dublin, 225, 226
policing of, 52–67, 136, 199, 209
Criminal Law Act (ROI, 1993), 227
Criminal Law Amendment Act (UK, 1885), 40
Crisp, Quentin, 2, 14
cruising, 20, 31, 33, 38, 46–67, 68, 72–5, 107, 252
decline of, 215–16, 217
policing of, 46–67, 72–5, 136, 199, 209
dating apps, 192
Davenport-Hines, Richard, 160
Davidson, Colonel, 182–4, 189
Davidson, Harold, 115–16
Davy Byrne’s, Dublin, 228–9, 230
Diary of a Nobody, The (Grossmith), 288, 289
Dolphin, Peter, 211–12
drugs, 112–13, 125–6
Dublin, Ireland, 221–38
assault in, 235–8
Dunne, Bartholomew, 229–30
Düsseldorf, Germany, 46, 50–67
Edinburgh, Scotland, 13, 52, 239–46
English Affair, An (Davenport-Hines), 160
Euston Tap, London, 219–20
Farrell, Kevin, 248, 249, 254
Ferry, Kathryn, 205
films, 57, 60, 66, 129, 281
Fitzroy, Rathbone Place, 36, 255, 281
Fletcher-Cooke, Charles, 137, 138, 148–51, 152, 156, 157, 161
Fyers, Fitzroy Hubert, 42
Gardler, Ray, 48
Gatiss, Mark, 2, 287, 288
Gay News, 251
‘gay panic’ defence, 144
Georgia, 222, 246, 259
Germany, 46, 49–67
Gielgud, John, 75, 139–40, 199, 215, 216
glory holes, 52
Golden Lion, Soho, 33, 142, 160, 194, 210–14
Goodbye to Berlin (Isherwood), 283
Granger, Stewart, 117
gross indecency, 40–45, 48–9, 52–67, 73–4, 80, 137, 151
guardsman’s defence, 144
Hadleigh, Boze, 117
Hair (musical), 252
Harvey, Ian, 73–4
Hazell, Martin, 198
Heterosexual Dictatorship (Higgins), 48
Hideaway Club, London, 172–91
Higgins, Patrick, 48
Hollywood Gays (Hadleigh), 117
homophobia, 31–2, 33, 99, 138, 170
homosexuality, 3, 31, 40, 99
age of consent, 242–3, 284
armed forces and, 53, 58
Buggery Act (1533), 40
conversion therapy, 286–7
cruising, see cruising
Labouchere amendment (1885), 40, 48
Lady Austin case (1932), 32
marriage rights, 227
Offences Against the Person Act (1861), 40
Sexual Offences Act (1956), 48–9
Sexual Offences Act (1967), 6, 31, 53, 98, 99, 204, 218
World War II and, 1, 6, 48, 53, 107
Horder, Mervyn, 2nd Baron, 158
Household Cavalry, 218
Hows, Julian, 197
Hoy, Craig, 258–64, 273–5
Hudson, Rock, 200
Huggett, Richard, 199
Ireland, 221–38
Celtic Tiger economy (c. 1995–2008), 226
Criminal Law Act (1993), 227
emigration, 225–6
Irish Peter, 9–10, 21, 25, 97, 98–135, 269, 291
fencing work, 100, 122
Flynn, relationship with, 105
Krays, connections to, 110, 125, 162–3, 172–91
murder, contemplation of, 98, 131–3
physical appearance, 103–4
probation officer blackmail (1961), 111
robbery of Lucas (1965), 129
robbery of Lucas (1968), 25, 133
torture (1968), 125, 134–5
Isherwood, Christopher, 283
Istanbul, Turkey, 222, 247
Jackson, David, 268–9
John XXIII, Pope, 151
Joyce, John, 165–9, 256, 291
Keane, Richie, 231
Keeler, Christine, 72, 137, 152
Kelly, Anthony, 180–81
Kennedy, John Fitzgerald, 207–8, 267
Kildoran Road, Brixton, 104, 113, 164, 164
Kit-Cat Club, London, 33
Kray twins, 1, 9–10, 110, 122, 125, 162–3, 169–91, 180
Boothby affair (1964), 169–72, 174
Irish Peter and, 110, 125, 162–3, 172
trial (1965), 125, 172–91
Kynaston, David, 74
Labouchere, Henry, 40, 48
Labour Party, 142, 143–4, 145
Lady Austin case (1932), 32
Larkin, Philip, 257
Lister, Anne, 287, 288
Loftus-Tottenham, Frederick Joseph, 62
Lucas, George Leo John, 17, 32, 108, 277
car accident (2001), 259
Catholicism, 3, 18–19, 31, 75, 82–5, 87, 253–4
chest tumour (1963), 265
childhood, 18, 271–2
class, views on, 5
court-martial case (1950), 52–67, 187
death (2014), 4, 7, 257–64, 273–7
death, views on, 265–70
Dublin assault (1966), 235–8
finances, 272
first sexual experience (1942), 20, 31
hair loss, 18, 108–9, 257
Irish Peter, relationship with, see Irish Peter
National Service, 8, 30–31
O’Hehir, relationship with, 70–71, 75–83, 87–97, 103, 109, 118, 291
parents, relationship with, 3, 18–20, 33, 68, 78, 84, 92, 113, 252, 255–6, 257, 265
penile discomfort, 204–5, 278
penises, views on, 214–15
photo collection, 12, 16, 46, 260–61
pornologophilia, 249
prudishness, 251–2
robbery (1968), 21–8, 133
‘street philanthropy’, 77, 114–16, 248, 256, 261–2
voice, 16–17
will, 273–7
Luke, Michael, 268–9
MacLeod, Ian, 109
Macmillan, Harold, 137, 160
Mandalay Road, Clapham, 14–17, 97, 258–64, 273, 274
Marble Arch, London, 33, 40, 69, 81–2, 84, 107, 198, 217, 280
Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, 162
Marlborough Street, 70, 72, 81, 88
marriage rights, 227
Maxwell Fyfe, David, 41–2
McAleese, Mary, 227
McCowan, Hew, 172–89
McKellen, Ian, 195, 242
McKinley, Barry, 202
McVitie, Jack, 191
Melly, George, 173
Mercer, Johnny, 53
Missionary, The (1982 film), 116
Modernity Britain (Kynaston), 74
Montagu, Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd
Baron, 75, 139
Moran’s Hotel, Dublin, 225, 237
Morris, Chris, 243
National Service, 8, 30–31
Niece, Charles, 9, 194, 201–2, 205, 210–14
Nilsen, Dennis, 196
Nin, Anaïs, 283
Norris, David, 227, 229
Northern Ireland, 227
O’Hehir, Flannan, 70–71, 75–83, 87–97, 93, 103, 109, 118, 291
Offences Against the Person Act (UK, 1861), 40
Old Compton Street, Soho, 192, 267
Orton, Joe, 287, 288, 289
Osborne, George, 103
Parker, David, 203
Parnes, Larry, 200
Parry, Will, 13, 242
Payne, Les, 125
penises, 215
Piccadilly Circus, London, 27–8, 68, 82, 102, 110, 139, 280, 288–9
Irish Peter at, 98, 99, 101, 105, 122, 124, 177
‘Meat Rack’, 114, 126
police crackdown (1961), 111
Ward’s Irish House, 166, 176
Pitt-Rivers, Michael, 139
pornologophilia, 249
Port, Stephen, 270–71
Pratt, James, 40
Profumo Affair (1961–3), 1, 72, 136–7, 149, 152, 153–4, 160
Pronto Café, Piccadilly Circus, 207–9, 224
prostitution, 7, 12–15, 69, 105–7, 109, 110, 239–57
car trade, 114
exploitation, 239–57, 260–61
at Golden Lion, 196, 197–8, 201
at Piccadilly Circus, 111, 114, 126
